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Papal envoy praises ‘spiritual climate’ of Medjugorje

Friday, 7th April 2017

While he said he had no authority or expertise to discuss the authenticity of the alleged apparitions of Mary at Medjugorje, Pope Francis’ envoy to the town said it was clear “there is a special spiritual climate here.”

Polish Archbishop Henryk Hoser of Warsaw-Praga, named by Pope Francis in February to study the pastoral situation in the small town and the needs of pilgrims, held a news conference on 5th April after a week in Medjugorje.

The archbishop repeatedly told reporters he could not respond to questions about the authenticity of the claims of six young people who said Mary had appeared to them daily beginning in 1981. Some of the six say Mary still appears to them and gives them messages each day, while others say they see her only once a year now.

“It is not my task to discuss whether these phenomena are true or not, because the Church has not yet defined them. This is the work of the commission,” which now-retired Pope Benedict XVI established in 2010.

Archbishop Hoser told reporters he hoped “the ultimate decision of the commission and of Pope Francis” would be published soon.

However, he did tell reporters, “the biggest miracle of Medjugorje are the confessions” of hundreds of people each day.

Evangelisation obviously is occurring in Medjugorje, the archbishop said, and that is clear from the packed celebrations of the Mass, eucharistic adoration, conversion stories and the reports of hundreds of Catholics who cite an experience in Medjugorje as key in their following a vocation to the priesthood or religious life.

Picture: Pilgrims pray around a statue of Mary on Apparition Hill in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, in this file photo from 26th February 2011. (CNS photo/Paul Haring).